Absolut Null Plunkt Live In Japan
(Important) Used CD $6.00
Stark pummeling fusion from 2003 by Zeni Geva founder KK Null and original Fushitsusha drummer Seijiro Murayama, combining elements of free jazz, heavy rock, industrial noise, glitch and free improv dynamics. Sealed.
Live at Muryoku Muzen Temple
(Important - IMPREC198) LP $14.00
Two side-long tracks made with oscillators, synth, ring modulator and vocals by Hiroshi Hasegawa (ex-C.C.C.C.), a companion piece to The Echo At The Purple Dawn (Important 2008). Black vinyl.
MAURIZIO BIANCHI / FRANCISCO LOPEZ
KRMN
(Important - IMPRPEC322) CD $7.00 (Out-of-stock)
“Over a background of sputtering, noxious static, MB lays down seven- to nine-second blasts of a grimier, harsher sound” for forty-four minutes, marvels Dusted. “There is something trance-inducing [the] utterly relentless repetition, which also forces the brain to hear every varied facet of that blast.” Meanwhile, Lopez immerses the listener in digital silence, low bass presence, and “a multi-layered spray of bright, pixilated frequencies…, like a sped-up film of light playing off of clouds…, ranging from feather-light to medicine ball-heavy without ever lapsing into anything so mundane as a tune.”
The Wolf Shall Also Dwell With The Lamb
(Important) Used LP $8.00
Guitarist / composer James Blackshaw and lutenist / composer Jozef van Wissem recorded at Locksley Hall, Amsterdam in April 2008. Four long circular compositions in which the duo unify in historical reference to the musics of both the ancient lute and contemporary acoustic guitar. Black vinyl. Sealed
Turntable History
(Important) Used CD $5.00
A recording of a 40-minute multi-channel sound composition conceived as part of an audio-visual installation in the circular vaulted brick space of a historical water container in Berlin in 2009. Harmonically resonating, pulsating signals derived from recordings made by Arnold Dreyblatt of a Magnetic Resonance Imagining Scanner (Siemens Magnetom Symphony Maestro Class) in a radiological practice in Berlin.
The Beauty Of The Steel Skeleton / Drifting Depths
(Important) Used LP $25.00
An improvised piece made on a harmonica being processed through Oliveros’s Expanded Instrument System, backed with a super slow melodic drone full of stillness, tension, and relief. 200g vinyl. Letterpressed paste-on jacket. # 668/760
Zamuro
(Important) Used CD $5.00
Side A on this LP is a live realization of solo composition piece for portable synth and analog filter recorded at the Compound in San Francisco in 2006. One Side B is a studio piece recorded live on a much larger modular synth, based around the same theme, but with structural and tonal variations not in the original composition. Pure psychedelic electronic music.
HAFLER TRIO / ANDREW LILES / COLIN POTTER
3 Eggs
(Important) Used CD $8.00
Originally intended as a merch item for a tour that never took place, their first collaboration.
Being A Firefighter Isn’t Just About Squirting Water
(Important) Used CD $9.00
On the fifth installment in Important’s series of EPs from sound sculptor Andrew McKenzie, a 20-minute construction from 2005 starts with soft metallic harmonics, sounding like heavily treated guitar strings, with low-frequency hums and whistle-like feedback entering the mix as it progresses. Edition of 500
Pale Fatal Sister
(Important - IMPREC210) 2xLP $22.00
Being a Nabokovian and visceral garden of delights, this musical evocation of memory and desire spreads over four sides, conjuring from dark wells to be birthed, twisting and screaming in silver winds. Heavier, more brooding, occult atmosphere than previously, if that's possible. Edition of 700
The Wide Weird World Of Henry Jacobs / The Fine Art Of Goofing Off
(Important) Used CD + DVD $15.00 (Out-of-stock)
The brilliantly sequenced CD cycles “through a kaleidoscopic array of sound bites that are alternately funny, charmingly nostalgic, bizarre, psychedelic and inexplicable,” notes Brainwashed. “From the odd verbal tennis of Jacobs and Ken Nordine … to a soft-spoken public radio DJ introducing … the ‘new sounds of musíque concrète,’ to the spooky psychedelic brain shivers of ‘Telephone Therapy,’ or the numerous excerpted bits of the wacky ‘Laughing String’ sketch, listeners unfamiliar with Jacobs’s work are in for a treat. Unlike [his] tape collage[s] from this period, Jacobs is unconcerned with formalism or overworking his sources too much…. [His] free-form approach [is] tuned toward less academic pursuits [with a] sensibility … informed by exotica and cartoon soundtracks, the radio landscape and early television…. [On] the TV programs on the included DVD, produced by Jacobs, animator Bob McClay and producer Chris Koch…, strange audio cues of various interviews and spoken-word bits set different primitive animations into motion, using a stream-of-consciousness editing style to meditate, albeit very abstractly, on the subject of leisure and leisurely activities. Stop-motion claymation, experimental film techniques, Terry Gilliam-style cutouts, subliminal image juxtapositions and psychedelic animations complement an eclectic soundtrack of music, jarring sound effects, and a series of narrators ruminating on leisure, delivering anecdotes and reading from funny ‘social engineering’ pamphlets. It’s undeniably reminiscent of early episodes of Sesame Street in its attempt to marry the surreal and psychedelic to family-friendly, educational programming.”
Admira
(Important) Used CD $6.00
Post-Moebius / Roedelius tracks from 1971 by Conrad Schnitzler, Klaus Freudigmann, and Wolfgang Seidel, seven of which were previously released on the Eruption LP (Qbico 2005), plus another continuous piece (indexed in five parts). Heavy, primitive. Gatefold card cover, embossed.
Vulcano
(Important) Used CD $6.00 (Out-of-stock)
Post-Moebius / Roedelius recording by Conrad Schnitzler, Klaus Freudigmann, Wolfgang Seidel live in Wuppertal, Germany, 1971. Raw and dark and demented and apocalyptic (especially the ending, with its distressed, echoed vocals). Gatefold card cover, embossed.
KOUHEI MATSUNAGA / ASMUS TIETCHENS
Asmus Tietchens / Kouhei Matsunaga
(Important) Used Split LP $12.00
Kouhei Matsunaga creates connections between his beat-based work and his more abstract soundscapes. Asmus Tietchens’s two pieces have been sculpted from stochastic sequences of pure sine waves as well as guitar samples by Dirk Serries (Fear Falls Burning) not for the purpose of collaboration, but for processing purposes. Sonic events orchestrated by a sonic master. Black vinyl
Body Melt
(Important) Used LP $10.00
A molting and simmering display of furious Hammond organs and Native American drums. Daniel Menche merges the powerfully fuzzed out organ drones with hypnotically crushing and frenzied drums. Call it trance music for carnivores or ambient music for cannibals. Black vinyl. Edition of 400
Cassette Memories Vol. 3: South Of The Border
(Important - IMPREC309) CD $10.00
Astonishingly surreal field recordings from Mexico, in which “small fragments of recognizable human elements (voices, machinery, street bands) … leak into an otherwise abstracted and distorted swimming pool full of … fragments….[I]intoxicating.
Interior Designs
(Important) Used CD $5.00 (Out-of-stock)
More “classic” in nature than her work under the name Can’t, and inspired by Pauline Oliveros, Eliane Radigue, Iannis Xenakis and especially Thomas Lehn, this collection of strikingly original pieces (incorporating the intuition of folk music with the techniques of the avant-garde), recorded on a Serge Modular and analog synthesizers Rylan built herself, influenced by plants, places Rylan among these monumental artists.
33 1/3
(Important - IMPREC145) Enhanced CD $12.00
Leaning here toward their 20th century avant-garde and out-jazz influences, Smegma have obviously spent of good portion of their 33.3-year history free-thinking their heads off. Magnificent blotoo honk by Oblivia, Ju Suk Reet Meate, Burned Mind, Conroy, and Dr. Id. CD includes live videos of “Happy Holidays” live at End Times Festival (with Spencer Yeh and Twig Harper) and “Grubsteak” live at the Three Million Tongues festival in Chicago.
Mirage
(Important - IMPREC311) CD $12.00
(Important - IMPREC311) LP $15.00
Running the gamut from musique concrète-inspired bombast to frenzied noise funk that morphs Eno / Roxy garage rock with primitive meditations, demented voices, toys, and record players, Mirage reunites four of the original members (working together again for the first time in many years) and introduces them to new collaborators. LP includes exclusive track "Very Good Advice," spontaneously performed at a house party in 2009. CD includes a different exclusive track "Oh Yeh," and a previously unreleased original from Pasadena 1973, "Quiet On The Set Rioux I."
The Anchorite
(Important) Used LP $14.00
Recorded without overdubs, straight to stereo two-track using three separate amplifiers and a combination of loops, tapes and live performance, this 1996 platter focuses on the nature of solitude and draws upon a black spaciousness. Hand-printed lino-cut art, the seventh volume in the label’s Arts & Crafts series. #297/500
Ikebana: Merzbow’s Amlux Rebuilt, Reused And Recycled
(Important) Used 2xCD $7.50 (Out-of-stock)
“According to the liners, artists were supposed to use the original album’s music as an element in a new composition, rather than piece together a traditional remix…. There are a few unruly moments that seem plucked from some forgotten cassette-only … release, but in general, much of this … could pass for an experimental IDM sampler. Alec Empire’s raging ‘Digital Hardcore Mix’ comes on like the soundtrack to a Terminator sequel that didn’t suck, with wildly distorted drum tracks kicking the shit out of all the extraneous debris…. Performing under his Plug alias, Luke Vibert’s excellent untitled futuro drum-n-bass slaps an engorged, fuzzy repeating synth bass under jagged glitch stutter beat…. Mouse on Mars’s ‘Superstar’ features no beats whatsoever, and in truth, sounds almost exactly like a Merzbow original, albeit a piece wherein he doesn’t so much opt for deafening displays of violent florescence as disorientating sound design. Cornelius’s untitled piece starts out innocently enough, with sampled jungle birds and rain, but gradually mutates into the pitter-patter of static electricity and industrial clang. Nobukazu Takemura’s ‘Assembler Mix’ takes the static idea and gallops with it, giving you hundreds of variations on the same grating implosion for what seems an eternity…. Makoto Kawabata’s amazing / nauseating ‘Revolved Jane’ … shows you don’t have to bother living up to a legacy if you’re perfectly capable of vandalizing it with a chorus of grotesque psych-locusts…. DJ Spooky’s trip-hop treatment doesn’t really sound like it belongs on the same album as the MoM or Takemura tracks, and Negativland’s highly annoying ‘An Actual Attack’ doesn’t sound like anything I need in my collection at all.”
Tuning To The Rooster
(Important) Used CD $6.00
The first record by VCO using a 24-track mixing board “is music as a shamanic aid, made as much for the players themselves as for the listeners,” asserts Julian Cope. “The twelve-and-a-half minute ‘Wearing Clothes of Ash’ is like a piano-led Paradieswarts-period drone-a-thon with John Cale and Terry Riley guesting on viola and keys. Following this, the sublime ‘Baptism Bar Blues’ is proof positive that they can rock the riot house with pure adrenaline rush.”